How do the fine arts programs improve a student's academic achievement, behavior, and testing scores?
By: Matt Guertin
Reputable Magazine:
Written by Rosalind Fehr, the article entitled "Huckabee Says Music Is a Key Education Component" from the Music Educators Journal summarizes various points made by Mike Huckabee, Arkansas' former governor, about the recent cuts of music education. The article is brief, but it is filled with several excellent quotes that Huckabee said during a Centennial Congress gathering. The first point Huckabee makes is that cutting the music programs is not helping the education system. Most school officials see the music programs as something disposable, because the benefits of music education are not readily known. Huckabee then goes on to talk about how music and art are vital for developing the left part of the brain. Huckabee states, "Nothing could be stupider than removing the ability for the left and right brains to function," when faced with the problem of these programs being cut. The final point made by Huckabee is that music develops important skills that children need to become successful employees in the future. He highlights upon the fact that music provides a child with collaborative skills, self-discipline, and the ability to "understand the big picture."
I was very pleased when I read through his article. Aside from the fact that Mike Huckabee is a reputable speaker and his claims help answer my research question, this assembly he spoke at had a variety of members who are directly involved in the school system. These people have the power to stop the cuts of the arts programs in schools. I enjoyed how Huckabee delivered his statements since they had a powerful tone and his stance is clear. In some of the articles I found, I had to read into the text quite a bit to find out whether the authors or researchers thought music programs were beneficial or not. I also enjoyed how the article brought up the fact that music develops creativity and it also allows another half of the brain to function, one that does not readily work too hard during any math or science related classes. The fact that he highlights that music education develops behavior skills that are hard to teach directly in other classes pleased me as well. School is not just about learning facts and skills within the corresponding core classes, but to also learn the "hidden curriculum" such as respecting others, responsibility, discipline, and collaboration.
Fehr, R. C. (2007). Huckabee Says Music Is a Key Education Component. Music Educators Journal, 94(1), 8. doi: Article.
Editorial:
The article entitled "To provide Quality Music Education Now, Schools Could Learn From the Past," from The New York Times, discusses the problems with the art and music programs in public schools today. It is not the programs themselves that are problematic, but how the rest of the school perceives how music should be taught and how they go about educating students about it. The money is spent on frivolous activities that do nothing to improve the program. Kozinn discusses that some schools use a once-a-year visit from a professional musician as their entire music curriculum. He discusses that actual music put into music education goes to all perfunctory purposes and not to music teachers or musical instruments for the children. After discussing the poor excuses for music programs provided today, Kozinn discusses how schools were about 40 years ago when music was a core part of the curriculum. Students were exposed to music classes spanning from theory to history throughout their primary and secondary school year. He continues to explain that music lessons were provided as well as instruments where children today have to purchase his or her own instrument and pay for lessons. The author makes a strong point in saying that no progression has been made in improve music in schools, that this problem has been persisting throughout the last decade and no visible progress has been made.
I have been involved with music programs since elementary schools and I can confirm Kozinn's claims with my personal experience. From the time I was in kindergarten up until the point where I graduated high school, I witnessed the lack of funds, care, and respect for the music department at my schools. When I was in fifth grade, I was told that if I wanted to be part of the school band, I would need to purchase a $1,300 saxophone. I did not even know schools offered instruments to children before reading this article. Sure, there were stories, but after buying an instrument, a music stand, a music book, a instrument case, extra reeds, and private lessons, it just seemed like a distant fantasy. My elementary school band practiced in the hallway and we would often have to play extremely softly to not disturb classes. I was young and I did not think much of it. When I reached high school, however, I started to become aware of the brush-aside nature of the rest of the school in relation to the music programs. Each year our annual field trip grew a bit less extravagant, apparently the school paid for our competitions at one point, but in the four years I was in the high school band, school officials often spoke of not allowing the band to compete out of state. It was deemed "noneducational" and in order to get permission to go on these trips, we would have to visit a science center, historical museum, or some other non-music related destination. On the morning announcements, the school would hear all about the sports festivities, but never in my four years in high school was the music programs mentioned, not even after we won first place at a band festival in Toronto. We did not even get a trophy case to put our awards in. One moment in particular that I remember is when one of the choral teachers came up to me and said, "In the thirteen years I have been teaching here, not once has a school official thanked me for putting on these concerts," and I can believe that. Even now, the music programs in the middle schools and elementary schools are at high risk of being cut. The students already pay for all of their materials, I do not see how the program would cost an overwhelming amount of money. The other articles I have discuss the positive effects of the music programs and how they improve a child's grades, test scores, and behaviors, so it is absurd to toss away with them, and other extra curricular activities as well. After reading this article, I was glad there are people who aren't deluded to the problems in the poor excuses for music programs offered to children today. Taking away the opportunity for a child to use his or her left and right brain in school is an uninformed decision.
Kozinn, A. (2007, December 25). To Provide Quality Music Education Now, Schools Could Learn From the Past. The New York Times. Retrieved November 21, 2008, from NYTimes.
Professional Journal:
This article contained two parts, both of them focusing on misconceptions of the fine arts programs as well as the positive benefits they provide to students enrolled in them. The article elaborates further on the effects of music, art and theater, moving beyond the benefits that can be physically tested such as academic performance and better testing scores in mathematics and reading. It discusses the effects, that may not be easily tested, but easily felt, such as the appreciation for the artistic mediums as well as identifying emotions conveyed in art pieces along with the analysis of them. Unlike scientific analysis, drawing conclusions about a painting or piece of music has multiple answers and requires skills to recognize motifs and themes in works and translate those to arguable opinions. From there, students have to use his or her opinions and discuss them with the others around them. The article discusses these collaborative skills as well as confidence, motivation to succeed, and preparation for work in the future. The article finally discusses how changes are being made to try and incorporate the arts into school more effectively, not just providing it to those who are considered artistically fluent, but to everyone so nobody will be denied of a complete education with fine arts integrated.
Despite the increasing number of research with regard to how the fine arts increase academic performance, I believe it is also advantageous to mention, and even elaborate on, the emotional and behavioral benefits that arts provide. Since a large percentage of the people who have power over the inclusion of arts programs in schools probably were not overly involved with the arts programs in schools and cannot personally relate to information provided about the positive benefits of arts, communicating the emotional aspects of the fine arts is something anybody can connect with. It is highly unlikely that a person has never been inspired or influenced by a beautiful work of ancient or modern art as well as a piece of music, so it pleases me that these music journals are including those significant details as well with the arguments provided. As our group's presentation will highlight, extra curricular activities are generally what high school students remember when looking back at their four years. They probably have forgotten the dates of the civil war or how to find the area of a cone, but have memories of volunteering in programs like DECA, or playing on a sports team, or playing in a musical ensemble can remain quite vivid in a student's mind. To deprive kids of that just seems illogical when looking at the most basic benefits of the programs.
National Endowment for the Arts. (2008). Why Fine Arts Education? Illinois Music Educator, 69(1), 79.
ERIC Article:
This article is a large collection of other articles regarding research done on music programs and how they develop cognitive abilities, mathematical skills, and reading skills.The article is broken up into sections to discuss various findings in the areas. The first section discusses one of the first instances where music was connected to improved learning and test taking abilities called "The Mozart Effect." It was a test done where a large group was collected and they were given a spacial intelligence test and half of them listened to Mozart during the test while the other half took the assessment in silence. The results showed that the students listening to music scored much higher than the other half, but the test results were never consistent when the assessment was recreated at a later time. The second section discussed how music may or may not influence spatial intelligence. Many different tests that have been performed were provided and discussed, most of which had results where students who took part in keyboard classes or rhythm training scored higher than the control group. However, there were some tests where no distinguishable results were found. The next two sections discussed various research done with music and mathematics and reading as well. Similar tests were performed and varying results were obtained. The ERIC article provided tests that resulted in music students scoring better in those two subject areas and tests where the results between music students and the control group were indistinguishable. Even though there are varied results, the article leans to the fact that students enrolled in music programs earlier will have a greater influence. It also stated that the longer he or she is involved, the larger the impact will be.
This article was interesting to read, because, unlike the previous three, there was no evidential bias. For every argument presented that supported music, a counter argument was provided. I think it is important to provide information on the test that had no distinguishable results because those tests can provide valuable information to refine and develop future experiments of the same variety. I was surprised at the amount of research done in this area since the ERIC article provided findings from several areas, half of the report seemed to be parenthetical citations! The focus for the research summarized was targeted toward children below the high school level. However, one of the major points that pertains to my research question is that the gap between the control groups and the music students increased with more years of music instruction. It is quite logical to focus these tests on when students are young and still developing, but the article talked about how more longitudinal studies need to be made. As important as music programs in the elementary schools are, high school brings upon a new spectrum of demands, requirements, and performance experience that is not offered in lower grades. I feel it is important to not suddenly stop music after middle school or elementary school since if students have a foundation in music already, building upon that will only prove to be practical and advantageous rather than cumbersome and a waste of time. The next source I found, presented below, is of a longitudinal study of fine arts, and the results are quite surprising.
Rauscher, F. (2003). Can Music Instruction Affect Children's Cognitive Development? ERIC Digest. Retrieved November 21, 2008, from ERIC Digest .
Research Report:
Referenced in the ERIC article, this longitudinal survey compared students in music and theater programs to those who were not in those programs. Unlike what the ERIC article summarized, the focus of this research was students from grades 8 to 12. Over the six year span of the test, the results were collected in the 8th grade year and then again in the 10th and 12th grade years. The students in the music and theater programs were assessed on several different factors such as grades, test scores, and interest in schools and then compared to the control group. For students polled in 8th grade, 82.6% of students received As and Bs in English compared to 67.2% of non-music students where 67.3% of students performed in the top two quartiles in the standardized testing and only 46.9% of non-music students performed at the same level. The results also show that students in music classes are less likely to drop out from school and are reported as having more interest in school than students not involved in the programs. These results remain consistent for the 10th grade and 12th grade years where high involvement in music results in about 20% higher percentile scores in the tested areas than students with low involvement. This test also concludes that students in music also perform higher in history and geography since more students in music performed in the top two quartiles than students not involved. A second significant finding for this testing was that music programs also improve the performance of students that fall into the low socioeconomic status category. For the NCLBA, schools must have students in specified areas perform equally on standardized testing. These areas are broken up into different races, economic status, and students with special needs. In order for a school to be marked as making adequately yearly progress, students of all categories must meet the standard on the testing. Many schools are failing to achieve adequate yearly progress because students of low socioeconomic status are not performing as high as they should be. The research mentioned above recorded that students of low socioeconomic status in music programs also scored higher on performance-based testing. The results showed an 8% to 10% increase of testing scores between students with high involvement in music and students with low involvement. The part of the test that assessed the children in the theater programs were performed in a different manner. Instead of focusing on test scores, behavioral indicators were assessed such as racial relations, self concept, and confidence as well. The results demonstrated that students in the drama programs are much more aware of the diversity around them and more accepting of others.
I was quite pleased when I stumbled upon this article since it directly relates to my research question, with the exception of the assessment not testing students in visual art classes. It focuses on the high school level of the music and theater program and it provides statistical data as well. The data was represented in charts and graphs, which was quite useful to me, and several different factors that correlate to the three parts of my research question were addressed. I was surprised with how large the gap was between music students and non-music students in all the different areas tested, and the fact that geography and English scores were higher for music students too was also impressive. This test also focused on how music programs affect low socioeconomic students as well, which was an area I did not encounter in my research. I am glad I learned about the requirements for the NCLB act in my education classes because it helped me make the connection that cutting music programs would potentially negatively effect a school's pursuit to make adequate yearly progress. Overall with my research, I feel I was able to cover a broad spectrum of sources, from heavily biased opinionated pieces, to one that present counter arguments, to this piece which has a stance, but has a great deal of information to support it. The theater program findings were also interesting as well. From personal experience from being involved with the drama department at my high school, there is a very large variety of children who participate in drama, and in order to make a successful production, everyone must work together and depend on each other. This contributes to the findings of greater acceptance in the drama departments, which I can connect to first hand.
Catterall, J. (1999). Involvement in the Arts and Human Development: General Involvement and Intensive Involvement In Music and Theatre Arts (p. 23). University of California at Los Angeles: Graduate School of Education &Information Studies. Retrieved November 12, 2008, from Report.pdf.
EDC 102 F08 Fnl Prj Eval - Matt G
How do the fine arts programs improve a student's academic achievement, behavior, and testing scores?
By: Matt Guertin
Reputable Magazine:
Written by Rosalind Fehr, the article entitled "Huckabee Says Music Is a Key Education Component" from the Music Educators Journal summarizes various points made by Mike Huckabee, Arkansas' former governor, about the recent cuts of music education. The article is brief, but it is filled with several excellent quotes that Huckabee said during a Centennial Congress gathering. The first point Huckabee makes is that cutting the music programs is not helping the education system. Most school officials see the music programs as something disposable, because the benefits of music education are not readily known. Huckabee then goes on to talk about how music and art are vital for developing the left part of the brain. Huckabee states, "Nothing could be stupider than removing the ability for the left and right brains to function," when faced with the problem of these programs being cut. The final point made by Huckabee is that music develops important skills that children need to become successful employees in the future. He highlights upon the fact that music provides a child with collaborative skills, self-discipline, and the ability to "understand the big picture."I was very pleased when I read through his article. Aside from the fact that Mike Huckabee is a reputable speaker and his claims help answer my research question, this assembly he spoke at had a variety of members who are directly involved in the school system. These people have the power to stop the cuts of the arts programs in schools. I enjoyed how Huckabee delivered his statements since they had a powerful tone and his stance is clear. In some of the articles I found, I had to read into the text quite a bit to find out whether the authors or researchers thought music programs were beneficial or not. I also enjoyed how the article brought up the fact that music develops creativity and it also allows another half of the brain to function, one that does not readily work too hard during any math or science related classes. The fact that he highlights that music education develops behavior skills that are hard to teach directly in other classes pleased me as well. School is not just about learning facts and skills within the corresponding core classes, but to also learn the "hidden curriculum" such as respecting others, responsibility, discipline, and collaboration.
Fehr, R. C. (2007). Huckabee Says Music Is a Key Education Component. Music Educators Journal, 94(1), 8. doi: Article.
Editorial:
The article entitled "To provide Quality Music Education Now, Schools Could Learn From the Past," from The New York Times, discusses the problems with the art and music programs in public schools today. It is not the programs themselves that are problematic, but how the rest of the school perceives how music should be taught and how they go about educating students about it. The money is spent on frivolous activities that do nothing to improve the program. Kozinn discusses that some schools use a once-a-year visit from a professional musician as their entire music curriculum. He discusses that actual music put into music education goes to all perfunctory purposes and not to music teachers or musical instruments for the children. After discussing the poor excuses for music programs provided today, Kozinn discusses how schools were about 40 years ago when music was a core part of the curriculum. Students were exposed to music classes spanning from theory to history throughout their primary and secondary school year. He continues to explain that music lessons were provided as well as instruments where children today have to purchase his or her own instrument and pay for lessons. The author makes a strong point in saying that no progression has been made in improve music in schools, that this problem has been persisting throughout the last decade and no visible progress has been made.I have been involved with music programs since elementary schools and I can confirm Kozinn's claims with my personal experience. From the time I was in kindergarten up until the point where I graduated high school, I witnessed the lack of funds, care, and respect for the music department at my schools. When I was in fifth grade, I was told that if I wanted to be part of the school band, I would need to purchase a $1,300 saxophone. I did not even know schools offered instruments to children before reading this article. Sure, there were stories, but after buying an instrument, a music stand, a music book, a instrument case, extra reeds, and private lessons, it just seemed like a distant fantasy. My elementary school band practiced in the hallway and we would often have to play extremely softly to not disturb classes. I was young and I did not think much of it. When I reached high school, however, I started to become aware of the brush-aside nature of the rest of the school in relation to the music programs. Each year our annual field trip grew a bit less extravagant, apparently the school paid for our competitions at one point, but in the four years I was in the high school band, school officials often spoke of not allowing the band to compete out of state. It was deemed "noneducational" and in order to get permission to go on these trips, we would have to visit a science center, historical museum, or some other non-music related destination. On the morning announcements, the school would hear all about the sports festivities, but never in my four years in high school was the music programs mentioned, not even after we won first place at a band festival in Toronto. We did not even get a trophy case to put our awards in. One moment in particular that I remember is when one of the choral teachers came up to me and said, "In the thirteen years I have been teaching here, not once has a school official thanked me for putting on these concerts," and I can believe that. Even now, the music programs in the middle schools and elementary schools are at high risk of being cut. The students already pay for all of their materials, I do not see how the program would cost an overwhelming amount of money. The other articles I have discuss the positive effects of the music programs and how they improve a child's grades, test scores, and behaviors, so it is absurd to toss away with them, and other extra curricular activities as well. After reading this article, I was glad there are people who aren't deluded to the problems in the poor excuses for music programs offered to children today. Taking away the opportunity for a child to use his or her left and right brain in school is an uninformed decision.
Kozinn, A. (2007, December 25). To Provide Quality Music Education Now, Schools Could Learn From the Past. The New York Times. Retrieved November 21, 2008, from NYTimes.
Professional Journal:
This article contained two parts, both of them focusing on misconceptions of the fine arts programs as well as the positive benefits they provide to students enrolled in them. The article elaborates further on the effects of music, art and theater, moving beyond the benefits that can be physically tested such as academic performance and better testing scores in mathematics and reading. It discusses the effects, that may not be easily tested, but easily felt, such as the appreciation for the artistic mediums as well as identifying emotions conveyed in art pieces along with the analysis of them. Unlike scientific analysis, drawing conclusions about a painting or piece of music has multiple answers and requires skills to recognize motifs and themes in works and translate those to arguable opinions. From there, students have to use his or her opinions and discuss them with the others around them. The article discusses these collaborative skills as well as confidence, motivation to succeed, and preparation for work in the future. The article finally discusses how changes are being made to try and incorporate the arts into school more effectively, not just providing it to those who are considered artistically fluent, but to everyone so nobody will be denied of a complete education with fine arts integrated.Despite the increasing number of research with regard to how the fine arts increase academic performance, I believe it is also advantageous to mention, and even elaborate on, the emotional and behavioral benefits that arts provide. Since a large percentage of the people who have power over the inclusion of arts programs in schools probably were not overly involved with the arts programs in schools and cannot personally relate to information provided about the positive benefits of arts, communicating the emotional aspects of the fine arts is something anybody can connect with. It is highly unlikely that a person has never been inspired or influenced by a beautiful work of ancient or modern art as well as a piece of music, so it pleases me that these music journals are including those significant details as well with the arguments provided. As our group's presentation will highlight, extra curricular activities are generally what high school students remember when looking back at their four years. They probably have forgotten the dates of the civil war or how to find the area of a cone, but have memories of volunteering in programs like DECA, or playing on a sports team, or playing in a musical ensemble can remain quite vivid in a student's mind. To deprive kids of that just seems illogical when looking at the most basic benefits of the programs.
National Endowment for the Arts. (2008). Why Fine Arts Education? Illinois Music Educator, 69(1), 79.
ERIC Article:
This article is a large collection of other articles regarding research done on music programs and how they develop cognitive abilities, mathematical skills, and reading skills.The article is broken up into sections to discuss various findings in the areas. The first section discusses one of the first instances where music was connected to improved learning and test taking abilities called "The Mozart Effect." It was a test done where a large group was collected and they were given a spacial intelligence test and half of them listened to Mozart during the test while the other half took the assessment in silence. The results showed that the students listening to music scored much higher than the other half, but the test results were never consistent when the assessment was recreated at a later time. The second section discussed how music may or may not influence spatial intelligence. Many different tests that have been performed were provided and discussed, most of which had results where students who took part in keyboard classes or rhythm training scored higher than the control group. However, there were some tests where no distinguishable results were found. The next two sections discussed various research done with music and mathematics and reading as well. Similar tests were performed and varying results were obtained. The ERIC article provided tests that resulted in music students scoring better in those two subject areas and tests where the results between music students and the control group were indistinguishable. Even though there are varied results, the article leans to the fact that students enrolled in music programs earlier will have a greater influence. It also stated that the longer he or she is involved, the larger the impact will be.This article was interesting to read, because, unlike the previous three, there was no evidential bias. For every argument presented that supported music, a counter argument was provided. I think it is important to provide information on the test that had no distinguishable results because those tests can provide valuable information to refine and develop future experiments of the same variety. I was surprised at the amount of research done in this area since the ERIC article provided findings from several areas, half of the report seemed to be parenthetical citations! The focus for the research summarized was targeted toward children below the high school level. However, one of the major points that pertains to my research question is that the gap between the control groups and the music students increased with more years of music instruction. It is quite logical to focus these tests on when students are young and still developing, but the article talked about how more longitudinal studies need to be made. As important as music programs in the elementary schools are, high school brings upon a new spectrum of demands, requirements, and performance experience that is not offered in lower grades. I feel it is important to not suddenly stop music after middle school or elementary school since if students have a foundation in music already, building upon that will only prove to be practical and advantageous rather than cumbersome and a waste of time. The next source I found, presented below, is of a longitudinal study of fine arts, and the results are quite surprising.
Rauscher, F. (2003). Can Music Instruction Affect Children's Cognitive Development? ERIC Digest. Retrieved November 21, 2008, from ERIC Digest .
Research Report:
Referenced in the ERIC article, this longitudinal survey compared students in music and theater programs to those who were not in those programs. Unlike what the ERIC article summarized, the focus of this research was students from grades 8 to 12. Over the six year span of the test, the results were collected in the 8th grade year and then again in the 10th and 12th grade years. The students in the music and theater programs were assessed on several different factors such as grades, test scores, and interest in schools and then compared to the control group. For students polled in 8th grade, 82.6% of students received As and Bs in English compared to 67.2% of non-music students where 67.3% of students performed in the top two quartiles in the standardized testing and only 46.9% of non-music students performed at the same level. The results also show that students in music classes are less likely to drop out from school and are reported as having more interest in school than students not involved in the programs. These results remain consistent for the 10th grade and 12th grade years where high involvement in music results in about 20% higher percentile scores in the tested areas than students with low involvement. This test also concludes that students in music also perform higher in history and geography since more students in music performed in the top two quartiles than students not involved. A second significant finding for this testing was that music programs also improve the performance of students that fall into the low socioeconomic status category. For the NCLBA, schools must have students in specified areas perform equally on standardized testing. These areas are broken up into different races, economic status, and students with special needs. In order for a school to be marked as making adequately yearly progress, students of all categories must meet the standard on the testing. Many schools are failing to achieve adequate yearly progress because students of low socioeconomic status are not performing as high as they should be. The research mentioned above recorded that students of low socioeconomic status in music programs also scored higher on performance-based testing. The results showed an 8% to 10% increase of testing scores between students with high involvement in music and students with low involvement. The part of the test that assessed the children in the theater programs were performed in a different manner. Instead of focusing on test scores, behavioral indicators were assessed such as racial relations, self concept, and confidence as well. The results demonstrated that students in the drama programs are much more aware of the diversity around them and more accepting of others.I was quite pleased when I stumbled upon this article since it directly relates to my research question, with the exception of the assessment not testing students in visual art classes. It focuses on the high school level of the music and theater program and it provides statistical data as well. The data was represented in charts and graphs, which was quite useful to me, and several different factors that correlate to the three parts of my research question were addressed. I was surprised with how large the gap was between music students and non-music students in all the different areas tested, and the fact that geography and English scores were higher for music students too was also impressive. This test also focused on how music programs affect low socioeconomic students as well, which was an area I did not encounter in my research. I am glad I learned about the requirements for the NCLB act in my education classes because it helped me make the connection that cutting music programs would potentially negatively effect a school's pursuit to make adequate yearly progress. Overall with my research, I feel I was able to cover a broad spectrum of sources, from heavily biased opinionated pieces, to one that present counter arguments, to this piece which has a stance, but has a great deal of information to support it. The theater program findings were also interesting as well. From personal experience from being involved with the drama department at my high school, there is a very large variety of children who participate in drama, and in order to make a successful production, everyone must work together and depend on each other. This contributes to the findings of greater acceptance in the drama departments, which I can connect to first hand.
Catterall, J. (1999). Involvement in the Arts and Human Development: General Involvement and Intensive Involvement In Music and Theatre Arts (p. 23). University of California at Los Angeles: Graduate School of Education &Information Studies. Retrieved November 12, 2008, from Report.pdf.